Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Buster Posey remembers plenty of Opening Days — or at least home openers, in which he’s received a few World Series rings. (And he wonders why there aren’t more Opening Days in San Francisco.) There is still a certain aura that comes with lining up along the lines and being at the park for the start of the season, hopes and dreams galore.
He does not remember much about last year’s, though.
“It was a normal parenting day,” Posey said on Wednesday, the eve of Game One of the season, “because that’s what I did every day. … I just remember being hopeful that the guys will be able to get through the season without any hiccups.”
He opted out for his own health and his family’s, which includes two adopted babies. A season later, he has gotten one vaccine shot and will get a second in the next few weeks. He said there will be a feeling of relief once he’s fully protected from the coronavirus.
“My personal take on it is just light at the end of the tunnel,” Posey said from Seattle.
He is back, baseball is back, and the world is slowly getting back to normal.
Posey will be the Giants’ catcher Thursday against the Mariners, paired up with Kevin Gausman to start the 2021 campaign. He won’t be batting No. 3 or 4 — 6 or 7 is the better bet — and things have changed since Sept. 29, 2019, the last time he played a game for the Giants. Bruce Bochy was his manager.
There are reasons to believe they have changed for the better, though, after a season that ended with a career-worst .688 OPS. Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford had significantly down years, too, and then were rejuvenated under the new-look hitting staff.
Posey retooled his swing after that season, during which he still was dealing with hip issues from 2018 surgery. In camp in 2019, he finally felt healthy, and although there was a tightness hiccup this year, he thinks his body is better off after the rest.
He does not want to look too far ahead, but did allow that he sees a Belt- or Crawford-like resurgence as a possibility.
“My goal is definitely just to go day to day as much as I can, just really focusing on what the plan is for that day,” Posey said over Zoom. “Trying to have my body in a place where I feel like I can get the most out of it.”
The more the Giants get out of Posey, the stronger the chances they have of competing deep into the season in a division in which they don’t have much of a chance. The Dodgers are the defending champs and the Padres are a superpower, while the Giants’ improvements (aside from bringing back Posey) have been incremental from last season.
But there are not going to be Giants who admit that.
Sure, Posey said, he believes the Giants have a shot to go deep into the season competing for the NL West crown — “I don’t think I’d be a very good teammate or competitor if I said otherwise.” — and his glances around Scottsdale gave him hope.
“I think we’ve just got a lot of really good baseball players offensively, defensively and pitching,” Posey said of the Giants, who overhauled their rotation and whose biggest offensive addition was Tommy La Stella. “I think the great thing about sports is nothing’s guaranteed. And we’ve got some great teams in our division, great teams across the league, but you go out there and play and see where things fall.”
He and Crawford will go out for a 10th Opening Day with the Giants, joining the likes of Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Robby Thompson, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal in the double-digit club.
Because his contract likely will expire after the year, he might not get to 11.
“I feel fortunate to be able to play as long as I have,” said Posey, who has plenty of reason to be relieved and hopeful.